It opposes utopian attempts to make society correspond with one dreamed-up in theory, as opposed to one that develops naturally in practice. What the political tradition of Conservatism seeks to conserve is not any given state of society, but rather the process by which society changes. It seeks to conserve a process, not an outcome. Crucially, I pointed out that Conservatives seek not only to preserve that spontaneity, but to restore it if it has been lost. This brings Margaret Thatcher into their ranks.
She managed to restore a degree of spontaneity that had been lost by decades of state controls and central direction. He did indeed, and had dinner with her twice a year when he came for meetings of the British Academy. He approved of the fact that she had restored a large measure of spontaneity, and in doing so had extended opportunities for people to exercise freedom and creativity that were previously denied.
In the properly understood meaning of the political tradition: F A Hayek was indeed a Conservative. He lays out a pretty clear for Hayek and robust definition:. Since [conservatism] distrusts both abstract theories and general principles , it neither understands those spontaneous forces on which a policy of freedom relies nor possesses a basis for formulating principles of policy. Order appears to the conservative as the result of the continuous attention of authority , which, for this purpose, must be allowed to do what is required by the particular circumstances and not be tied to rigid rule.
A commitment to principles presupposes an understanding of the general forces by which the efforts of society are co-ordinated, but it is such a theory of society and especially of the economic mechanism that conservatism conspicuously lacks. He claims conservatives can be identified by:. Hayek also makes an offhand comment about conservatism not possessing a basis for formulating principles. First, look at how Hayek expands on his definition. On proof by experience and a corresponding distrust of theory:.
But, from its point of view rightly, conservatism fears new ideas because it has no distinctive principles of its own to oppose them; and, by its distrust of theory and its lack of imagination concerning anything except that which experience has already proved , it deprives itself of the weapons needed in the struggle of ideas. Unlike liberalism, with its fundamental belief in the long-range power of ideas, conservatism is bound by the stock of ideas inherited at a given time.
And since it does not really believe in the power of argument, its last resort is generally a claim to superior wisdom, based on some self-arrogated superior quality. On requiring specific, outcome-based goals, rather than a framework of disinterested rules to govern change:. They typically lack the courage to welcome the same undesigned change from which new tools of human endeavors will emerge. This is difficult to reconcile with the preservation of liberty.
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